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JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
In Winnipeg, 240 WestJet flight attendants walked off the job and were marching outside of the airport terminal Sunday as part of a nationwide strike.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Key issues causing the stalemate are wages and pay for work on the ground: the union says flight attendants are not being paid for some of that work, while the company says they pay for the work through a \u201ccredit hour\u201d system rather than an hourly rate.<\/p>\n
CUPE Manitoba president Gina McKay called unpaid work \u201ca huge part of (attendants\u2019) duties\u201d while on the picket line Sunday morning. She was regularly drowned out by honks from drivers and cheers of support from people entering the airport, which she noted as a sign of solidarity from other workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no job in this country that should be unpaid when you\u2019re putting in hours,\u201d McKay said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo our message to workers is just to say, we\u2019re here in solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n
WestJet cancelled 300 flights across the country Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Westjet flight attendants and supporters walk the picket line.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Inside the airport Sunday morning, WestJet\u2019s check-in lines were bare, but long lines built up around check-in at other airlines; some of those waiting were travellers struggling to book new flights to make their long-weekend vacation plans or get back home.<\/p>\n Several told the Free Press they had come to the airport for help finding a flight after calling WestJet and waiting on hold for hours, only to be asked to book online or try the phone line again.<\/p>\n Peter and Lisa Hebert came to the airport to try to book a new flight home to New Brunswick after theirs was cancelled. They were given a list of flight numbers by a staff member and were asked to try booking online.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tried (calling WestJet) yesterday, and we couldn\u2019t get through, nothing,\u201d Peter said. \u201cAnd they said that they help you try to connect the flight, get flights and that, but they\u2019re not helping us.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Sydney Handel had planned to fly to Alaska, has been trying to rebook her flights. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Sydney Handel and her husband had been planning their trip to Anchorage, Alaska for nearly a year. Their flight was cancelled, and WestJet re-booked them on a series of flights to take them from Winnipeg to Saskatoon, then to Minneapolis, and then to Anchorage. Then, their flight in Saskatoon was suddenly cancelled, and the pair chose to stay home rather than risk getting stranded in Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds like the people (WestJet) have on staff haven\u2019t been working for a very long time, so they\u2019re as confused as we are,\u201d Handel said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten lots of texts, lots of emails about re-booking and rescheduling, and everything seems to fall through right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Even with her own frustrations, she said she sympathizes with the picketing workers.<\/p>\n \u201cHuman to human, I get it. You\u2019re not being paid what you think you\u2019re worthy of being paid, I understand,\u201d she said. \u201cSelfishly, I want to go on our trip that we\u2019ve been planning for almost a year, but I can\u2019t blame them.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s Mohammad Saleem\u2019s first time visiting Winnipeg. He came with more than two dozen people from Houston, Texas, to attend a wedding last weekend. On Sunday, he showed up at the airport to confirm his re-routed flight after attempts to call WestJet\u2019s phone line resulted in hours of waiting.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Mohammad Saleem, from Texas, is stuck in Winnipeg as flight attendants walked off the job Sunday. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a very great time until we found out that our flight got cancelled because of (the) strike, and we\u2019re stuck here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n They were able to book a flight for Tuesday and an extended stay at their hotel, but there\u2019s no guarantee the flight won\u2019t be cancelled if the strike persists. Saleem, who works for American Express, said WestJet should be thinking of its customers first in this situation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever my customers call, and if they have a problem, our first step is to help the customers,\u201d he said. \u201cSo (whenever) they have (a) problem, they need to look for the customer, that\u2019s more important.\u201d<\/p>\n There are 4,400 WestJet flight attendants currently on strike across Canada. The airline, which operates more than 600 flights a day, has said 250,000 people could have their flights cancelled.<\/p>\n In a statement Sunday morning, WestJet said any flyers impacted by the strike would be refunded or re-accommodated.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re disappointed to be here, this directly impacts the travel plans of our guests, our WestJetters and the communities and businesses we serve,\u201d said Alexis von Hoensbroech, the chief executive officer of the WestJet Group.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Westjet flight attendants and supporters walk the picket line at Winnipeg\u2019s Richardson airport Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Last August, 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants went on strike, seeking wage increases and improvements in ground pay. Ottawa intervened less than 12 hours later, invoking Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code and ordering workers back on the job.<\/p>\n The union defied that order, and a tentative deal was reached four days later.<\/p>\n University of Manitoba labour studies professor Julia Smith expects to see other airlines follow suit, as flight attendants have flagged this as an industry-wide issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can expect to continue to see this because flight attendants have basically said that the status quo isn\u2019t working, and this is an issue that they are willing to go to the picket line for,\u201d she said. \u201cThat strike mandate they got, 99.4 per cent, that\u2019s so high.\u201d<\/p>\n But she cautioned against \u201cnormalizing\u201d the federal government stepping in on strike action.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat that essentially communicates is that the federal government is willing to just say, \u2018Today we want to respect charter rights, and tomorrow we won\u2019t,\u2019 and that should be of concern to everybody, whether you\u2019re in a union or not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u2014 with files from the Canadian Press<\/p>\n malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Malak Abas Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg\u2019s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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